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URGENT ! CRISIS IN
THE HERRING STOCKS

For countless aeons, here on the west coast,
the March new moon (March 13th) was the Moon of the Herring Spawn. Great schools of
herring would come into bays all over the Island to spawn, and the Nuu'chah'nulth, Salish
and Kwagiulth peoples would lower branches of cedar or hemlock into the water,leaving them
to collect the spawn with lines attached to rocks. After one or two days,the men would
raise the branches, white with spawn, and the women would dry and store them away in cedar
boxes for the winter months ahead.

The native fishery is still practiced, but
today, the real event in mid-March is the commercial herring fishery - a few hours of
craziness that can net a boat's owners million dollars, not for the herring but for its
eggs, the roe, which is a great delicacy in Japan. The herring itself is turned into
fishmeal or dug into the ground in trenches.

Twenty years ago, there were herring spawning
grounds all over the Strait of Georgia. Today, they have all but vanished - all except
one, around Denman and Hornby Islands. In 1990, Jake Schweigert, the DFO's senior herring
biologist, concluded that "alarming trends" were underway in the south coast
herring populations. He found 170 locations where herring used to spawn in abundance
before 1980 which were severely depleted or barren by 1990 - Porlier Pass, Trincomali
Channel, Bedwell Harbour, Saturna Island, Kuper Island, Thetis Island, Saanich Inlet,
Simoon Sound, Saltery Bay, Pender Harbour, Texada Island and many more. Where the herring
spawning grounds used to be measured in beach-miles, there are now none.

The commercial roe-fishery began in 1972,
working its way around all these bays and inlets. At Nanoose Bay, they took 10,000 tons in
1978, 1,800 tons in 1983, and there have been no herring since.

At Coffin Point, near Ladysmith, families
from the Cowichan, Malahat, Nanaimo and Penelakut bands would meet every year with
families from the Chemainus band to conduct their spawn-on-branches fishery, which they
call chummish. In 1990, the seiners came and took 3,600 tons, and the herring
have never returned. The 1989 chummish fishery was the last traditional herring roe
fishery held anywhere in the Strait of Georgia. (Thanks to Terry Glavin & the Georgia
Strait)

Globally, our track record in managing the
world's fisheries is abysmal. As overfishing depletes prized species like snapper, tuna,
cod and swordfish, commercial fishermen are moving further down the marine foodchain. If
this quest is pursued to its logical end, scientists warn, it will lead to the wholesale
collapse of marine ecosystems. (William Stevens, New York Times).

David Pauly, a fisheries biologist at UBC,
has worked with other scientists to compile a worldwide study of this trend, monitoring
the downward shift from Level 1 (the top predators, such as sharks, tuna and swordfish) to
the lower levels. (Level 4 consists of grass, detritus and algae). Different fish are
placed in different levels, according to their feeding habits.

By combining all the data, the scientists
show that the global trophic level of fish catches has declined from 3.7 to 3.4 since the
1950s, and probably further. If this trend continues, Pauly says, many marine food webs
will be 'collapsing in on themselves' in 3 or 4 decades. On the east coast, where cod
stocks have collapsed, the fishing industry is concentrating on the cod's prey, shrimp.
But without the shrimp, how can the cod ever recover ?

Herring is the primary food for coho and
chinook salmon; with the herring vanishing, is it any wonder that salmon stocks are
collapsing ? But the herring are also a major food source for goldeneye, harlequin duck,
grebes, loons, bufflehead, scoters, scaups, eagles, mew and herring gulls, old squaw,
cormorant and marine mammals. The whole breeding cycle of these creatures depends on the
herring migrations. It is folly of the highest order to remove such a major player in the
food chain.

In 1997, there was a huge herring fishery in
the Denman/Hornby area. Out of the 14,500 ton quota for the Georgia Strait, Denman/Hornby
took 8,400 tons,. There was more herring in the Strait than in any year since 1951 - so
the Department of Fisheries and Oceans think they are doing a great job.

David Ellis, on the other hand, a former
commercial troller with an international track record for his knowledge and competence,
fears that the remnants of dozens of migratory and non-migratory stocks, driven to
behavioural extremes by overfishing, may be balling together in a single, huge mass as a
last desperate survival tactic. The truth is, nobody knows if the herring consist of
different stocks or one stock. In ignorance, we risk disaster.

The remedy is simple, but painful to the
fishing fleet : manage the herring in the Strait of Georgia from an ecosystem perspective,
and designate them a food source for marine mammals, salmon and waterbirds.

- Guy Dauncey

ECONEWS

Published as a monthly service, nourishing
the vision of an Island blessed by the harmony of nature and community, funded by your
donations.

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ECONEWS HITS 70 !

EcoNews reaches its 70th issue today, for
which we can all be very proud. Many more to come ! Greetings to all our readers, and to
the merry band of volunteers who come out each month to laugh, fold, stuff and enjoy
dessert
- anyone can join us ! A special thanks to Teresa Lindner, who has prepped the envelopes
each month for the last 5 years. She has just stepped down, so we need a new volunteer. It
involves sticking the labels onto 1,000 envelopes while watching TV (or whatever), and
adding the return address stamp. Please call me if you think you can help. Guy, 881-1304.

MARGARET MEAD'S FINAL
VISION

Margaret Mead is the famous anthropologist
who spoke the much quoted sentence : "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Here's
what she said on her deathbed to Jean Houston, as recalled by Joseph Roberts, editor of
Vancouver's Common Ground Magazine : "Forget everything I have been teaching you
about working with government and bureaucracies. I have been lying here being an
anthropologist on my own dying, a fascinating experience; there's no hierarchy to it. And
I realize that if we are going to grow and green our time, it is people getting together
and teaching learning communities. I have had a revelation - God, I wish I could live long
enough to see it through ! People have to grow together. They have to do physical, mental,
psychological, spiritual processes together. And as they deepen, and hold each other's
dreams, by God, they go out and make a difference."

FRIENDS OF THE SLOCAN

The Friends of the Slocan benefit dance for
the ecoforestry struggle in the Slocan Valley raised an amazing $4,900. If you want to
join the local campaign, call Peter Ronald at 361-3621.

EARTHWEEK April 18th - 26th

On Sunday April 22nd, 1990, some 200 million
people in 141 countries participated in local Earth Day activities to create the largest
organized event in peacetime history. The Vancouver Island Earthworks Society coordinated
local events then, and has done so ever since. So this is an invitation to you to organize
something for this year's Earthweek among your friends, or any society you are involved
with - a parade, a day trip to the beach, a ceremony or spiritual service, a meditation,
eco-rave, seminar, workshop, guided walk, community clean-up, coffee house, art show,
community vision-building exercise, street party. This year's theme is 'Building
Community'. The deadline for the Earthweek Diary is March 27th - contact Doug Koch,
383-5765, kjones@islandnet.com. Let the spirit soar ! Volunteers are also needed to help
with the big EarthWalk on Sunday April 25th -call Roy McFarlane 386-3786

CANADA'S PARKS - FOREVER
WILD ?

Rick Searle has just come back from an epic
30,000 km trip visiting 19 national parks throughout Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and
the Prairies, adding to his intimate knowledge of the Rocky Mountain parks. He is very
alarmed about the loss of wilderness and the failing ecological health of the parks, and
is giving a slide show presentation on the parks, and what can be done to reverse the
trend, on March 26th (see Green Diary). He's also preparing a book to be published next
year by the World Wildlife Fund and David Suzuki Foundation. 598-0199.

Fancy having a large Earth Flag, ready for
Earthweek in April ? Every home should have one ! For a colour brochure, write to PO Box
108-E3, Middleville, NJ 07855, or call (201) 579-7889.

GREENWAYS FOREVER

Can you imagine it ? Trails like the
Galloping Goose stretching all the way from Victoria to Cape Scott, with connector trails
stretching out to the Brooks Peninsula, Tahsis, Gold River, Tofino, Bamfield and Port
Renfrew.
Well, keep on visualizing, because one day, it's going to come true - the work has already
started. On March 20th - 22nd, there's a major Speakers Forum and Information Fair at the
Crystal Garden and St Ann's Academy, called 'Local Greenways and the Trans Canada Trail :
Connecting Home and Country', covering trails, greenways, and land and stream stewardship
initiatives and all sorts of presentations, design groups and progress reports. The Trans
Canada Trail National AGM will be happening during the Forum, as will the Streamkeepers
and the Land Trust Alliance of B.C., so this will be a big-time opportunity for
connecting. Registration is $20, plus $20 for the Awards Dinner. Call the Provincial
Capital Commission (386-1356) for details, or if you want to mount a display or present
information. For details of the Land Trust meeting, call (250) 538-0112 or email Sheila at
ltabc@saltspring.com

A BIKE ! A BIKE !

A bike ! A bike ! My Island for a bike !

Oh, that the sweetest lanes and mountaintops
should not with foul assault be shaven,
worthlessly to fall from glorious gold
into the lost debris of myths that once were golden.

For doth this Island that we love so much
touch not the very heavens with its grace?
Do not the eagles e'en look down with joy
as in its air they spire their ancient dance ?

What fools be we, if in our late arriving,
do so destroy the place of our arrival,
burying deep its heart, its soul
in the rubble of our building ?

Such is the brilliance of excess,
the wisdom that can only see
delight in a supermarket trolley,
not a tree.

Bring then a bike, a train, a humble bus
that we should change this climate in our souls
before we burn this planet on our coals;
this appetite will be the death of us.

A bike ! A tram ! A rollerblade !
than pave this heaven someone made.
Take hence this thing that's hagged its might
into the mare of all our nights.

In place of haste and rush and greed
let's place sweet limits on our speed,
and in constraint, let's say a prayer
for bikes - God bless them, everywhere.

GD, with apologies to Shakespeare
(a 70th edition indulgence)

MAI 'DEAD IN THE WATER
FOR NOW'

The MAI - the highly controversial
Multilateral Agreement on Investment which the 29 nations of the OECD have been
negotiating in Paris - has fallen off the rails. This does not mean that it is dead, but
the treaty-makers have failed to reach sufficient agreement to meet their late April
deadline.

According to the news agency Reuters,
'Standoffs over U.S. trade sanctions and movie subsidies sank attempts on Tuesday to pave
the way for a global OECD treaty designed to liberalize and protect hundreds of billions
of dollars in cross-border investments. "It's basically as good as dead in the water
for now," one European delegate said.'

The treaty has broken down over differences
between the nations about 'carve-outs', such as Canada and France's demand for cultural
exemptions, inter-European trade arrangements, French trade with Iran, America's boycott
of Cuba, and public procurement policies in US states. Underlying these disagreements lies
a deeper concern about the loss of national sovereignty, and the massive protests which
non-governmental organizations
have organized over the last 9 months.

In mid-February, a coalition of 565
international NGOs (including 90 Canadian organizations) issued a joint statement, saying
that the treaty was not acceptable in its present form and demanding that negotiations be
halted. Among the reasons given was that "The MAI fails to incorporate any of the
several relevant international agreements such as the Rio Declaration; Agenda 21; UN
Guidelines for Consumer Protection (1985); the UNCTAD Set of Multilaterally Agreed
Principles for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices (1981); the Beijing
Declaration on Women and the HABITAT Global Plan of Action."

The MAI is not dead, but it has definitely
suffered a huge setback, and this is all due to the massive organizing by the world's NGOs
- Non-Governmental Organizations - community and citizens groups who were outraged by this
secretive attempt to rewrite the world's rules in favour of big corporations and investors
at the expense of local communities, culture, social justice and the environment. It was
these protests that shook the negotiators, and alerted the world to what was going on.
Without the Internet, this level of protest would not have been possible. The MAI setback
is a substantial illustration of the power which the Internet gives to NGOs around the
world; we have yet to grasp its true potential for facilitating change.

A GREEN BABY SHOWER

Jackie Robson (who organizes voluntary
simplicity groups here in Victoria, 361-9446) was recently invited to a friend's baby
shower. But what to do ? Baby showers have become massive consumer binges, sending the
message to the baby's soul that this is what life is about. So instead of buying more
"stuff", Jackie set about researching something different, and ended up buying
stock in the Clean Environment Fund, complete with a beautiful certificate stating
"The Sum of One Hundred Dollars has been invested in the Clean Environment Fund on
Behalf of Damon Alex. The proceeds come due on his 18th birthday, in the year 2016. May
the Air, Water and Trees of this Our beautiful Remembered Earth continue to Support and
Nourish His Life." Yea, Jackie ! How's that for starting a whole new tradition ?

ACTION OF THE MONTH : THE
HERRING CRISIS

The details of the crisis are on the cover
page. So straight to the action !

(1) Write to David Anderson, Minister of
Fisheries & Oceans, House of Commons, Ottawa K1A 0A6 (no stamp needed), expressing
your concern, asking that the herring fishery be managed on a full marine ecosystem basis,
and that the herring be designated for salmon, birds and marine mammals, rather than for
human consumption.

(2) Write to or call Dennis Streifel, the new
minister in the brand new provincial Ministry of Fisheries, Legislative Assembly, Victoria
V8V 1X4, Tel 356-2735, with the same request.

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